It's the eighth month of the year, so eight favorite things. I don't get much more clever than that, so let's just dive right in!
Zucchini bread just might be the only reason I plant a garden. I love to eat it raw, steamed, fried, roasted, for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacking. It's such a hard-working plant that I get a little bit of angst about being gone for more than a couple of days while it's producing for fear I'll return to the base-ball bat size veggies (I think they're technically fruit, but whatever....I can't wrap my brain around that one). But in the event that that happens, and it surely will at some point, zucchini bread or brownies are the perfect way to use those extra large guys.
A little butter makes everything better! The turbinado sugar sprinkled on top before baking makes the most delightful crunchy texture on the top, and also it's a very pretty amber sort of color. I highly recommend you not peel the green off your zukes. It gives you the feeling that you're eating something healthy and therefore you can feel great about eating half a loaf in one sitting. Also, I'm often a "dessert before dinner" sort of gal, so this works well!
This one was pretty close to the baseball bat stage and was hiding under a large leaf. The leaves are the same exact color the the veggie/fruit are; and also prickly and can sort of scratch when searching around the plants for harvesting.
Number two of my favorite things, is this really fun orangey/red fingernail polish. I rarely choose bright colors, but thought Summer to be the perfect time to get out of my normal boring nail polish routine.
I want to try stuffed squash blossoms next!
Third on my list is my recent discovery of sourdough cookies. Using whole wheat flour and walnuts I feel this can classify as "breakfast food". A little sprinkling of Fleur de Sel salt on top before baking gives a nice offset to the sweetness and it looks pretty too!
Fourth, is this surprise plant that is growing in one of my compost piles. I am assuming it's either some variety of squash or melon that sprouted seeds when they got tossed into the pile. No idea if any of the fruit will mature before we have a hard frost but meanwhile I'm going to let it grow and let the compost pile underneath it just decompose at a slower pace.
Fifth is the compost sifter Dave built for me. It's currently out of order because of said mystery plant having woven itself all through it, but we haven't really worked the compost much recently due to the very smoky skies and not wanting to be outside any longer than absolutely necessary.
Sixth on my list are the old-fashioned roses growing in the front walkway of our yard. The blooms remind me of peonies, and they have been such good sturdy plants that have taken my neglect and still been such a beautiful addition to our rather haphazard landscape.
Seven, are the leaves of one of our redbud trees that we cut down since a wind-storm nearly destroyed it. We didn't stump-grind it and now it is coming back stronger than ever in the form of a multi-trunk bush/tree sort of thing and I'm seriously thinking we ought to just let it do it's thing because I am so in love with these leaves. It's like a tree of LOVE....so many little heart-shapes!
Eight. Well I turned 56 years old on the seventh of this month. One afternoon when I was all alone in the house (which I believe has happened for maybe about a total of thirteen hours in my adult life), I decided to learn how to use the self-timer on my Nikon D-5600. Every week I try to learn one new thing about my camera so I will be more daring and creative. I figured "It's my birthday week.....let's learn the self-timer!" After you-tubing a lesson on how to do this, I got a white sheet out and draped it over the bedroom door, set the camera on my tri-pod and after several very awkward poses and smiles, I finally figured "What the heck.", and just had fun!
I love being in my fifties. Truthfully I have loved every age I've ever been except 13 and 15 yrs old. Those were rough years. I blame hormones. I applaud all the mamas that take selfies of themselves alone and with their husbands and children. You can never capture those moments again. I plan to do this every year. My body has changed but my heart is young, and hopefully my mind is becoming wiser, even though I often can't remember why I went into one room from the other.
This is the first birthday I've ever had without either of my parents. Without either of them around to call me at 6:30 AM on the dot, to sing "Happy Birthday" to me ("Because that's what time you were born honey!") Instead I got a call from my step-father Terry. He sang to me and it was comforting. He has gifted me with several bowls-full (or is it bowl-fulls) of plums from the tree in his back-yard. I'm going to make plum jam this week-end. Because you know what they say. When Terry gives you a bowl of plums, you make jam. Actually I just made that up.
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